Six years ago Grant Fuhr caught the attention of the hockey world by playing in 79 of the St. Louis Blues' 82 hockey games.

His coach was of course the infamous goalie yanker, Mike Keenan, so that number needs to be quantified. He played total of 4,365 minutes, which would translate to 73 full hockey games.

What does this have to do with the 2001-02 NHL season?

Simply ... everything.

All around the league two very related occurrences are taking place.

One ... many a team are leaning heavily on one goaltender to shoulder an excessive amount of the team's load.

And ... two ... coaches, fans and media from these cities are concerned that their "horse" will burn out causing their seasons to crash and burn around them.

Is there a cause for concern?

As always, yes and no.

Takes All Kinds

Clearly, all goaltenders are not cut from the same cloth. Some can handle excessive workloads, while others will simply wear down with too much work.

The Calgary Flames have seen their share of broken down goaltenders over the years, in fact one could suggest it's almost part of the team's historical lore.

From Marc D'Amour, the upstart Moncton farm hand that made the team out of camp but dehydrated so badly in the nets that he couldn't continue to his career. To Fred Brathwaite and his lack of conditioning down the stretch in Calgary last year, the Flames have always had difficulties with health in the goal crease. In-between of course you'll find Ken Wregget and a bad back, Grant Fuhr and his wonky knees, and even Mike Vernon, the team's current backup, who found a concussion and a strange skin rash last year, ending what was very healthy run through his career.

Some guys have the conditioning, the injury luck, and the style that permits playing most nights, other guys can only punch the clock 40 to 50 times a season.

Different Eras

Just like bell-bottom jeans, and the slinky some things go away, only to come back again. Yesterday's outrageous trend is tomorrow's reality.

Fifty years ago the NHL was a six-team league, each team played a total of 70 games.

The Red Wings finished first that season, and their starter, Terry Sawchuk played each and every game.

He wasn't alone.

The Canadiens Gerry McNiel played all 70 games in Montreal, as did Jack Gelineau in Boston.

Harry Lumley lugged 64 starts for the Blackhawks and Chuck Rayner played 66 games for the Rangers.

The only team that split their goaltending was the Toronto Maple Leafs with Al Rollins starting 40 games, and Turk Broda cleaning up the other 30 starts.

If these mask-less wonders could start between 90 and 100 percent of a 70 game schedule, what's keeping today's stoppers from doing the same over an 82 game schedule?

The Work Horses

Grant Fuhr's longevity in the 1995-96 season stood out because; with the exception of Bill Ranford in Boston, he was basically the only stopper taking on such a workload.

Ed Belfour started only 50 games for Chicago, Andy Moog started 41 for Dallas, Chris Osgood had 50 starts in Detroit, and Dom Hasek started only 59 games in Buffalo.

The only guys knocking the knocking on the door would include; Felix Potvin 69 games in Toronto and Sean Burke 66 games for the Whalers.

Essentially goaltenders were platoon-ed.

Today a different story all together.

Rank

Goalie

%GP

1

J. Thibault

96.0%

2

M. Brodeur

95.2%

3

Tommy Salo

92.0%

4

Olaf Kolzig

91.3%

5

N. Khabibulin

90.9%

6

Martin Biron

88.0%

7

Curtis Joseph

87.5%

8

Chris Osgood

87.0%

9

Dan Cloutier

84.6%

10

Byron Dafoe

82.6%

The table above shows the league's top ten most "leaned upon" goaltenders through Sunday's action.

Jocelyn Thibault in Chicago has played 96% of the Blackhawks games through their first 25 starts.

Martin Brodeur has manned the cage for 20 of the New Jersey Devils 21 games this season, while Tommy Salo has been in the nets for 23 of the Edmonton Oilers 25 games.

Fans and media in Calgary are concerned about Roman Turek's durability, yet the lanky Czech stopper doesn't even make the top ten in terms of percentage of games. Turek has started only 19 of the Flames first 23 games, for a percentage of 82.61%.

Over a full season many of these goaltenders are on pace to enter the "Fuhr" range, but none are on pace to exceed it.

The table below shows each of the above goaltenders expected game total this season, and the same number adjusted for a season in 1951.

Rank

Goalie

%GP

Pace

1951

1

J. Thibault

96%

79

67

2

M. Brodeur

95%

78

67

3

Tommy Salo

92%

75

64

4

Olaf Kolzig

91%

75

64

5

N. Khabibulin

91%

75

64

6

Martin Biron

88%

72

61

7

Curtis Joseph

88%

72

61

8

Chris Osgood

87%

71

61

9

Dan Cloutier

85%

69

59

10

Byron Dafoe

83%

68

58

The only goaltender on pace to equal Grant Fuhr's 1996 numbers is the leader of the last table, Jocelyn Thibeault.

However, eight goaltenders are on pace for 70 starts this season, a number unheard of in the NHL's modern era.

A look further down the list shows 13 different goaltenders are currently on their way to at least 68 appearances, and could topple the 70 barrier with more work as their seasons wind down towards the playoffs.

Work and Results

It's difficult to pin down an effective causal relationship between workload and performance.

A great goaltender could play every game for a very poor team and have average results, but that wouldn't suggest less games would have made the team's fortunes any more rosy.

At this point however, many of the most successful teams in the National Hockey League are relying on just one goaltender. In fact the only team in the league's top ten with a true rotation is the Carolina Hurricanes, who have Arturs Irbe on pace for 53 games, and Tom Barasso on pace for 48.

The other teams all have a goaltender on pace for at least sixty starts.

Scheduling Starts

So what does this all mean?

With everyone leaning on one goaltender more than ever before in the modern era, there is basically two ways an NHL coach can go.

One, join them, keep up with the Jones, and ride the hot hand throughout the season. Recently Greg Gilbert started Calgary's backup, Mike Vernon, in successive starts on a road trip. Vernon surrendered nine goals in the two starts and the Flames lost both games. Two to three more points in the standings from a couple of Roman Turek starts might have a significant bearing on the final standings.

The other solution is to continue to find rest for a team's starter figuring the majority of the competition is essentially pushing their luck by riding a workhorse goaltender late into the season.

A well-rested starter on pace for only 60 games may be dominant in March and April when playoff spots are on the line. The effect could be magnified if the league's other top teams are all facing an unprecedented occurence of goalie burnout, and turning to their backups.